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Menino won't take a back seat in cab scandal

That's what Boston Mayor Tom Menino should have said when confronted by reporters over the Boston taxicab scandal, coming as it did when he has one foot out the door.

He should have made like cab driver Robert De Niro in Taxi Driver. De Niro, practicing scaring off his pursuers in front of a mirror, says threateningly: "You talkin' to me? You talkin' to me? ... Well, I'm the only one here ... Who the bleep do you think you're talkin' to?"

That would have scared them off.

That's what Menino, 70, the Boss of Boston, would have done in the old days, when it was acceptable to say nasty things to people, especially if they were reporters. Do it now and you end up before the state Ethics Commission, if you are lucky enough not to be first charged with hate speech.

Instead, Menino, who has been mayor for 20 years, had to make believe that he knew nothing about what was going on in the Boston taxicab industry, an industry that is supposedly regulated by the well-named Hackney Division of the Boston Police Department, which he controls.

The Boston Globe's Spotlight Team sideswiped Menino with the story. Just days after he announced he would not run for re-election, the paper published a critical series on the Boston taxi industry in which cab drivers -- mostly immigrants and minorities -- are gouged and punished by politically connected cab owners who operate their franchises with apparent immunity from regulation.

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Rather than just tell the reporters to take a hike, as the Boss of Boston would have done back in the day, a mellowed-out Menino told the Globe that he was unaware of how bad things were, but that he would look into the situation. This from a control freak who could hear a pin drop in Egleston Square.

Menino told the Globe pithily, "Some of the stuff in there I have no control over." There is nothing in Boston that the Boss of Beantown does not control.

Yet there could be some validity to his position, when you consider that the Boss hasn't hailed a cab in 20 years.

He has been chauffeured around town in a fancy SUV all these years and has never needed a cab. Since he has never ridden in a cab, it only follows that he has never talked to cab drivers, despite the fact that many of the drivers are immigrants or minorities, the type of people Menino likes to talk about helping. So how is he supposed to know what is going on?

Besides, if all those people taking cabs used public transportation, the MBTA might not be in such financial trouble where, with more fare increases looming, a ride on the T will soon cost more than a ride in a cab.

Or maybe people could walk for a change, like Menino used to do before he took ill. Walking is good for you, and you get to meet lots of lost and bewildered tourists that way.

In addition, as a man of the people, the Boss understands that riding the T is a much more culturally rewarding and diverse experience than riding in the back of a cab.

In a cab, you get to meet only one immigrant or minority at a time -- the driver. Usually, he can't talk to you anyway because he can't speak English, or he is on his cellphone talking to his girlfriend in Krakow.

But on a bus or subway train, you get to mingle with a host of people of all races, from all walks of life, from all countries, speaking different languages, sometimes even English. It is diversity at its best. And everyone knows the Boss is big on diversity.

What people do not realize is that the Boss of Boston has given the taxi-industry problem a great deal of thought.

And he has a secret plan to solve it. He just hasn't told the Globe about it.

His plan is to have the MBTA take over the taxicab industry in Boston, merging all 1,825 cabs with the MBTA fleet of cars in the T's The Ride program, which allows those eligible (elderly and disabled) to pay $4 for a cab ride. Under the Boss's plan, everyone would be eligible.

If the merger results in a budget deficit, the governor and the Legislature can simply pass another MBTA financial bailout bill, which it always does anyway.

If you ask the Boss about it, though, you'd better beware. He will grimace and say, "You got a problem wid dat?"

Peter Lucas' political column appears Tuesday and Friday. Email him at luke1825@aol.com.

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